Motorola Assist and Connect apps go live on Google Play Store

Motorola has just unleashed a double whammy of apps for owners of its most recent smartphones. While these apps are exclusive to some Motorola devices, putting them up on Google Play Store will allow the company to iterate over and distribute the app far more quickly than it could if they were baked into the firmware.

Motorola Assist has a slightly deceptive name. It is an app that lets users set up certain rules during certain events, blocking out or automatically replying to calls with an SMS when driving, in a meeting, or even sleeping. Users can also setup music when driving or indicate which hours are considering to be sleeping time.

The more appropriately named Motorola Connect works in tandem with a Google Chrome web browser extension to bring message and call notifications from the phone to the desktop. Users can see who is calling so that they can decide whether to take the call on their Motorola smartphone or not. They will also receive SMS notifications and even reply right from the web browser, though it seems to be implied that the user should be using Google+ Hangouts as the SMS app for this to work.

Here's a short video explaining how Motorola Connect works.

Motorola Assist and Motorola Connect are available for free but are compatible with only a limited number of Motorola smartphones, which include the Moto X, the Droid Ultra, the Droid Maxx, and the Droid Mini. Motorola Connect also requires a Chrome browser extension on the desktop side, which can be downloaded from the link below.